IPO This application relates to an electronic gaming machine such as a ‘slot machine’ wherein players receive monetary awards which are displayed, for example, in the form of a three digit number. The player can then choose whether to keep the original award or to modify or gamble the award. A number of methods are provided for modifying the award, one of which is to re-arrange or scramble the original three digits to form a new number e.g. the digits 416 may be scrambled to become 614, 164 etc. Alternatively, the machine may modify the original award by regeneration i.e. generating a complete new set of digits, by adding or subtracting a digit, or by applying a predetermined multiplier.
The hearing officer held that the invention failed the third step of the Aerotel/Macrossan [2006] EWCA Civ 1371 test because the contribution, ‘a method selected and used to modify the award, and in particular the operation of regenerating or scrambling the digits to produce a new award’, related to no more than a scheme, rule or method for playing a game and a program for a computer as such.
Judges:
Mr P Slater
Citations:
[2007] UKIntelP o09907, O/099/07, GB0404737.9
Links:
Statutes:
Intellectual Property
Updated: 19 October 2022; Ref: scu.456627
